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Compassion

Lately, I’ve been thinking about compassion. Poverty is all around me. And I’ve been wondering how to deal with it. Here’s another post about it, from a couple of months back.

Poverty is all around me. And it’s easy to ‘feel bad’ for people – after all, it’s better to feel something than nothing when we see poverty or injustice, cause we don’t want to be cold hearted and indifferent. Feeling something can give us a false sense of ‘doing’ something.

But how often does it actually result in action?

Here’s the thing. Poverty and injustice makes us uncomfortable. We are confronted with our riches, the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’, the harsh reality that not everyone has enough food or water or a family.

And it’s in all of us – we want to be comfortable.

I’m not comfortable when I see a stoned 6 year old with dirt on his face collecting garbage to make some money.
I’m not comfortable when I see a man without legs begging on the side of the road.
I’m not comfortable when a random lady on the bus demands some of the peanuts I’m eating (get lost! they’re mine!).

So I want to look the other way.

But the other night, when I was trying to fall asleep, I thought about the boy we had seen in Lakeside that day, the stoned dirty garbage collecting boy, and I got a picture on my mind of a very healthy, happy, loved kid.

That could have been him.

We all value ourselves so high. We want education, love, acceptance, learning experiences, food. We want to explore the world, grow, discover, have a happy life.

We deserve it, right? We need it.

Well, this kid is one of us. He’s no less than we are.

But he doesn’t get any of that.

He probably doesn’t even have time to think about it, if he’d even know what it is.

But all I want you, or us – it includes myself – to realize, is…that we’re in this world together. We’ve done nothing to deserve wealth, or riches. They have done nothing to deserve poverty and starvation.

These issues have roots that go way beyond our understanding.

But here’s what we can do.

The other day, I asked what ‘compassion’ is. I got some interesting responses, which you can read here.
When reading the comments, I noticed how apparently compassion doesn’t go without action. It’s an emotion, that is followed by an action.

I can look at this kid and I can feel genuine sadness. I feel for him, I want him to have a better life, I want there to be people that take care of him, love him, feed him, clothe him.

But when I don’t give him an orange or a meal, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just emotion. Maybe emotion that makes me feel better about myself – at least my heart is not made of stone. But emotion alone won’t change this kids life.

Maybe my orange won’t, either.

But if I show my compassion to him, and to the lady on the bus that wants my peanuts, and to the guy that approached me because he needed money for the bus (or for who knows what) – maybe, one person at a time, a change will be seen.

—

“For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water. I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes, but you needed MORE clothes. I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved.”

My friends, what good is it for one of you to say that you have faith if your actions do not prove it? Can that faith save you? Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them, “God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!”—if you don’t give them the necessities of life?
Jacob 2:14-16